Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1887-02-12
NIP IT OUT.

UAdsr - shove caption tho Billings Ga
seetsso4afssr the Commercial Licsnss bill
Il tbsf6aowing styls:
AThsC ommercial License bill should nc
f1oneer dsfaee the statutes Of Montana
Thsrs i no excuse for it. Il dos not en.
courass any industry or kesp any money
from leaving the Territory. 1t simply
forces the people Of Montann to pay more
for merchandise than they should and sab.
iects tho government Of the Territory to
weIl-deeerved ridicule. ALondon paper i
now beine raked over by the New York
press for stating that the old curfew law
has been revived in the western States.
The London paper il not SO Tar ont after
al. It probably heard OF the com.
msrcial license tax Of Montana, and
thinking that il such q relic
OF barbarism could not have been
adopted in q new Territory, it has substi-
tuted the moro reasonable curfew. Indeed,
II the tax on commerce 10 continued here,
We may reasonably expect tho adoption Of
the curfew law, the window tax, and other
relics Of the dark ages. The avowed OBJ
jet OF the commercial license tax 10 to
prevent eastern jobbsrs from. selling goods
in Montana, to give q fe~ Helena mer.
chants q corner on tho goods sold
in this Territory. The people Of
Montana generally don't care whether the
Helena jobbers continue in the trade or
not. II they are not satisfied with the le-
climate profits they might - well close up
for the tax won't saw them. They are
not manufacturers, o producers, and are
OF NO benefit to this country, but . nuis-
ance that should be abated. It is high
time for them to give way to some live
business men to keep abreast Of the times,
col -k~ IL nat Ron~ Avnn AA~nafS
ion."
The present commercial license law. il we
mistake not, wa introduced in theshapso Of
q bill in the upper branch Of the Legislative
Assembly in the session Of 1873 and 70 by
ex-Councilman A. NJ. Hotter, Of Helena.
This was before . railroad had entered the
Territory. It was urged at the time that
tho measure wal necessary to protect the
merchants o! the Territory who were com-
PEELED to pay q license. against drummers
from Eastern houses who, not having this
burden to bear could undersell them at
their own doors. There was some reason
in this, and the bill became a law. The con-
dition Of things have somewhat changed
since then. The building of railroads in the
has revolutionized trade here.
Towns that were once great distributing
are in q large measure shorn Of their
traffic. Country merchants can
order through commercial agents
small lots from first hands in the East
and have their goods laid down 1T their
cost Of their license to the merchant, who
in turn adds it upon the price Of his goods,
10 that in the end, the pays the
The repeal OF the law would doubtless
excite sharper competition among large
in the cities of the territory and
enable country merchants to sell their
goods at lower figures, all Of which would
benefit consumers, but vt the same time
it seems unjust to those who have opened
business here at great expense, who are
large stocks, whose goods are
taxed and who pay q license to sell them,
10 place them in direct competition with
houses which do not pay q cent of
taxes in the Territory, nor q cent for IL
;snse to sell their goods. A moderate Ter
license We believe should be exacted
and the present county license system dis
peused with. This We believe would give
better satisfaction to all.